


And Aaron Makes 5!

by LitsyKalyptica



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: "Not Another College AU", Aaron has a diary, Aaron is the Single Straight Friend, Alex is an excitable puppy and loves his boyfriend so much, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And also love each other so much, Antagonism, Everyone help Aaron get a girlfriend!, Everyone is living together, F/M, John is a lil shit and also loves his boyfriend so much, Laf and Herc are the Mom and Dad Friends™, M/M, Multi, Sex Work, plot maybe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 08:33:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14257029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LitsyKalyptica/pseuds/LitsyKalyptica
Summary: Aaron didn’t really know what he was getting himself into, but he needed somewhere to stay before classes started. But it’s only one semester. He could deal with this… right?DEAR DIARY,I DON’T KNOW IF I’M MALE-BONDING OR BEING BULLIED.





	1. Chapter 1

It would just be for five months. It couldn’t be that bad. Right?

“You must be Aaron Burr!” 

And before he could respond, his one free hand was pulled into a tight grip and vigorous handshake. Aaron followed the hand up a thickly sleeved arm to a bright, smiling, and scruffy face. Aaron tried to match the man’s enthusiasm. “I suppose, sir. And you must be…?”

He had four new roommates. He had no idea which one this was supposed to be. But this didn’t sound like the person he’d spoken to on the phone; the accent wasn’t thick enough.

“Alexander Hamilton. You can call me Alex, if you want, but Alexander works just as well.”

“Alright… Alexander.”

Aaron’s belongings were left out in the truck as Alex pulled him right inside. “No one else is home right now, but I’ll show you around.”

Aaron was quietly grateful for the tour. He hadn’t gotten the chance to see the house in advance; his prior living arrangement fell through, and he only had a week to arrange a new rental from out in Buffalo. There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kitchen was reasonably large but there was no dining space. There was a card table set up in the living room, between a sofa and a loveseat, and there was a half-eaten bowl of cereal left on top of it. A bit of milk had spilled. That must be their dinner table.

“So! The good news for you is that you’ll have a room to yourself for no extra rent.”

Aaron’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing with some apprehension. “Um… why is that?”

“Oh, we didn’t need it, anyway. It’s just $1,250 a month. Laf filled you in on all the details, right?”

Laf, Laf… “The one who I spoke to on the phone?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Yes, he’s filled me in.” Now he could at least match a name to a voice, whenever his other roommates arrived.

“Perfect!” Alex moved away from him to clear up the cereal bowl and the spilled milk. “Sorry, I got into something else and forgot to clean this up. Here, I’m gonna make some food. Are you hungry?”

“Um, sure, but I should really get to unpacking.”

“Oh, we can do that later! We’ll all help out. Well, at least most of us, I don’t know how tired the others will be from work.” He went to the fridge and pulled out some Chinese food with ‘A.H.’ written on the container. “Oh, yeah, be sure to initial all your food. Unlabelled food is communal food.”

“Alright…”

“And makes sure your B’s don’t look like H’s, or we’ll end up eating each other’s food.”

“Okay…”

Alex poured lo mein out onto a large plate and stuck it in the microwave. As the device whirred beside him, he hopped up to sit on the counter. Aaron realized there were no chairs around. “So, Aaron, tell me a little about yourself.”

“Oh, well, I’m a pre-law major — ”

“Oh wow, me too! Maybe we’ll have some classes together. What year are you in?”

“I’m a senior. This is my last year.”

“Same here! I’ll be finishing a year early because I got a jump start on classes when I was in high school. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-one…”

Alex seemed to consider that for a moment, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling. “So you’re the third oldest of us, and also the third youngest. Laf and I are both younger than you, but not by too much. John’s older, and so is Herc.”

Aaron laughed softly as he was cut off a second time. This Hamilton kid just didn’t know when to stop, did he? “Yes, anyway, I also work in a bank.”

Alex groaned. “Man, I wish I worked in a bank. I’m stuck at a stupid deli. Can make a mean roast beef sandwich now, though. What do you do there?”

His prickliness somewhat abated with the question. “I mostly work the front desk, direct customers to where they need to go, to who can help them. It’s light work, and can get boring.”

“Then why don’t you work somewhere else?”

Aaron laughed, and found he didn’t get to answer as the microwave beeped.

“Food’s done. Come on, let’s eat.”

Alex split the leftovers up between two styrofoam plates and headed into the living room, plopping down on one of the sofas. “The other guys should be home soon. They had class or work today. I had work too, but I work only a couple of blocks from here, and didn’t need to go into the city. Plus, someone should’ve been here to welcome our new roomie!”

They were about halfway through their meal when the door opened. Aaron could hear voices and the shuffling of shoes being kicked off.

“Okay, Alex will know.” A voice called from the other side of the wall. “Alex! Do you have to call it in if you hit a cat with your car?”

“No, you don’t.” Alex answered, quickly and easily. “Who hit a cat?”

“No one,” another voice said, sounding like the one Aaron had heard over the phone, but grumpier. “I don’t even remember how it came up, but John coerced me into betting my fries that you do have to call the police.” There was the rustling of a bag, and someone came out into the doorway, the second roommate Aaron would see. He looked smug, and munched on a french fry. Aaron would correctly assume this one was John. The other two couldn’t be seen very well as they went right to the kitchen.

“It’s dogs and cows.” John gave a quarter turn and finally noticed a new arrival was in their midst. “Oh, hey, you must be Aaron. John Laurens, pleasure to meet you.” He shook Aaron’s hand more calmly and deliberately than Alex had, which was appreciated. Laf and Herc joined them in the living room just as John plopped down on the sofa next to Alex, one thigh over Alex’s knee. 

Aaron didn’t want to make assumptions, but their relationship became pretty evident when Alex wrapped a steadying arm around John’s waist and pressed his whole face against his neck.

Laf and Herc sat on the loveseat, almost as close together as their friends.

Aaron ventured a joke to ease his own tension. “I guess this makes me the odd one out, then.”

Laf seemed to take it the wrong way, looking concerned. “Oh no, was Alex not friendly to you? Alexander.”

“No, I was plenty friendly!”

“Oh, no, Alexander was just fine. I’m just… It seems as though the four of you have… partnered up.”

Herc laughed much more softly than Aaron could’ve expected from a man of his size. “This place is full of PDA. It’d be best for you to just get used to it.” Herc’s voice was the only one in which Aaron couldn’t detect an accent. “If it bothers you — ”

“It doesn’t.”

“Oh, good!”

Aaron thought to tell them about himself, but found he didn’t have to as Alex started relaying everything he had told him earlier, with great enthusiasm. Aaron almost blushed. He’d been pretty quick to assume that Alex hadn’t been listening to him, but he remembered even the smallest details.

They talked a little longer before the conversation died down. Herc smiled. “Come on, Burr, we’ll help you get settled.”

“I have work tonight,” John noted. Alex was littering his arm with soft kisses. “Could I squeeze a nap in?”

“You go on and get some sleep, babe.” Alex’s lips lingered on a dark bruise near John’s elbow. “We’ll help Aaron get moved in.”

He nodded and kissed Alex briefly before hopping off his lap and heading upstairs. Alex watched him off with so much love in his eyes no one could’ve guessed they’d already been together for two years. Aaron felt his face burning just looking at it.

“Come on,” Laf called from where he suddenly appeared in the doorway, alongside his own boyfriend. “Let us get your stuff inside!”

 

Alex, Laf and Herc helped Aaron get his stuff moved into his new room, but Aaron noticed how they seemed to be whispering among themselves about every item they came across. They were all speaking in French, so Aaron couldn’t be sure exactly what they were saying, but they were giggling as he helped him put his stuff away, and with every noise he’d turn, paranoid that they’d found his diar— _journal_.

Aaron’s room was across from Laf and Herc’s and next to Alex and John’s. He could hear them through a wall as he arranged his bookshelf.

“John? I thought you were taking a nap?”

“I had to get some studying in first.”

“Oh, you can’t work yourself like this —”

“Pot calling the kettle, don’t you think?”

“John, you’ve worked all day, and you’ll be working all night.”

“I don’t have class tomorrow.”

“I know…” There was a long silence between them. “Hey, where’d that bruise come from?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Was it Lee?”

“I said don’t worry about it.”

He could even hear the squeaking of the bed as Alex seemed to sit down. 

Bed squeaking. He could hear their bed squeaking from his own room. That brought horrifying thoughts to Aaron’s mind.

Aaron considered himself an ally. He very genuinely had no issue with his roommates being boyfriends with each other, even briefly entertained the idea that they might all be dating each other without having to think much of it. And Aaron wouldn’t have given a second thought to the fact of Alex and John having sex if not for the knowledge that he would be able to hear it from his own bed.

And honestly, he was more worried about what that might awaken in him than anything.

 

_ 8/19/18 _

_ Dear Journal, _

_ I met my new roommates today. They seem nice enough. I don’t think I’ll mind living with them for the semester, but I’m worried about whether they’ll turn out to just be acting this way to keep me from dropping out of the agreement and losing them a rent contribution. _

_ I’ll jot down a few notes on them, as I might have trouble remembering names in the morning. _

_ Alex — greeted me; excitable and friendly; poor attention, good memory; mild Caribbean accent; studying pre-law with a minor in journalism _

_ John —I don’t know too much about him so far; reads as a Trickster figure and a little smug; Southern accent; dating Alex; studying biology and art _

_ Laf — French; friendly, caring, charismatic; dating Herc; a hairdresser; polisci major with communications major, which I feel will suit him _

_ Herc — big and strong; helpful; not a student, but has a degree in fashion design, which I wouldn’t have expected; a soft man; works in a Macy’s _

_ They’re quite the characters. I don’t think I will have trouble remembering which one is which. They certainly leave impressions. _

_ But it’s not all sunshine and daisies. I think Alex and Laf and Herc might have been laughing at some of my belongings. I don’t know whether they found you, journal, and I hope they didn’t. I don’t think I’d ever hear the end of it. Why did I get one that had “DIARY” written on the front? (no offense) _

_ Alex and John’s room is right next to mine, and the walls or thin. I’m worried I will be able to hear them having sex. I think it would be too awkward to address it with them if I can. _

_ I hope this all goes well, though. I would like to make friends with them, but if we’re not compatible as friends, I hope at least they make decent housemates. It’s just for a few months. I’m sure it will be fine. Right? _

_ Goodnight. _


	2. Chapter 2

Aaron had almost expected to wake up to moaning. But not from the attic.

_Oh shit, it’s a ghost._

He fumbled for the flashlight he kept on the box that was his bedside table and set out to warn his new housemates about an evident haunting.

There was the sound again, louder this time.

He rushed downstairs, into the kitchen, and grabbed the first item that may fend off a ghost. The thudding of his footsteps in the hallway must’ve roused the others, and by the time he returned upstairs to warn them, it seemed the rest of the house was awake. Laf and Herc stood in their bedroom doorway, and Alex was just opening his own, rubbing his eyes. His vision cleared just in time to see Aaron armed with an umbrella.

“... What…?”

“It’s a ghost, guys, there’s a ghost in the attic.”

Alex blanched and sputtered. Laf was the first to speak up. “Are you sure it isn’t just a squirrel?”

“No, it was moaning!”

“Do squirrels moan?”

“No, I don’t think squirrels moan!”

“What kind of moan was it?”

“What does it matter, nothing should be moaning up in the attic, right!”

“Um, not exactly.” Alex moved over to the ladder that led up into the attic, which through the darkness Aaron was just realizing was down. Alex took three steps up, enough to poke his head into the attic, and Aaron heard him say something in Spanish that he couldn’t understand.

“What is going on?” Aaron asked at length, and suddenly Laf and Herc burst out laughing.

Alex returned, face turned slightly downward. “Aaron, sorry if it scared you, but that, um, wasn’t a ghost. John’s up there, working.”

“Working on what?”

“Oh, dear, we’ll let him explain in the morning.” Laf barely got it out through a fit of giggles.

“I think that’s been enough fun for tonight.” Alex was more serious than Aaron had seen him yet, and seemed eager for everyone to get back to bed. And Aaron would be lying if he said the last three minutes hadn’t exhausted him. “Good night.”

 

“Ooh, look, Hercules, it’s a ghost!”

“Fuck off.” There was only the slightest edge to it as John grabbed an apple off the kitchen counter.

Herc almost choked on his eggs laughing. “Oh no, the ghost is angry!”

Aaron wanted to bury his face in his cereal. Which would be worse, drowning in milk or dying of embarrassment?

Everyone was gathered around the makeshift dining table, some science documentary that had Alex engrossed playing on the small TV. Herc and Laf were chuckling among themselves, and had somehow arranged themselves so that they were both sitting in each other’s laps at the same time. Aaron couldn’t comprehend how they’d managed such a position.

John sat next to them on the sofa, intently blocking them out, playing on his phone with an apple in his mouth.

Alex seemed to notice him at last, and almost reluctantly muted the program. “How’d it go last night?”

“Hm. Same as always, until the ghost showed up.” Aaron tensed but he noticed the smirk on his face. “No, my customers didn’t really appreciate it, but no one logged off or asked for a refund.”

“Would you have given one?”

“Fuck no. They paid for an hour, and I gave an hour. Not my fault Aaron was caught off guard.” He turned his head to catch Aaron’s eyes, a distinctly playful arrogance glittering in his eyes. “I’m a sex worker, Aaron. Services vary, but it’s mostly streams and other digital stuff.”

“He used to work in your room,” Alex added, sounding almost a little too excited to have found this less-than-pleasant connection. “But now that you’re here he’s gonna be working in the attic.”

“It’s pretty cold up there.”

“Do you want to move it to our room.”

There was a short pause. “No. That’s our space.” John kissed Alex’s shoulder, earning a bright smile from his boyfriend and a kiss to the forehead.

Aaron frowned slightly and looked over the couples. “I really am a fifth wheel here, aren’t I?”

“Do you have a partner?” Laf asked.

Aaron stumbled over his answer. “Um, no.”

“Anyone you like?”

“Well, there is… one girl.”

“Is she single?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Then we’ll help you!”

That was the last thing he’d expected from these guys, but all four seemed to be in agreement. “Um, I mean, do any of you know how to flirt with women…?”

“Yeah,” Alex insisted. “I’m bi as fuck, and so is Herc, and Laf is pan. And we’ve all dated women before.”

“O-Oh…”

“Haven’t you?” The question was almost too innocent to feel condescending.

“No, not really…”

Laf nodded, eyes hard with resolve. “Well, then we’ll definitely have to help you!”

 

_8/20/18_

_Dear Journal,_

_I made an absolute ass of myself last night. That’s the last time I believe in ghosts. From now on I’m just going to assume it’s my camboy roommate doing his job in the attic. I didn’t expect to write that sentence._

_I apparently he used to do the work in my room. I don't know of a strong enough sanitizer to feel comfortable in there again. Alex needs to shut up sometimes._

_The guys seem intent on helping me impress Theodosia, but I don’t think they realize just how out of her league I am. Maybe they’ll realize soon and give up. It would almost be a relief. Better to have never loved at all then to have loved and lost._

_I don’t think that’s how the quote goes. But that’s my life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to comment!

**Author's Note:**

> Woo! I've been sitting on this for a while. Leave comments to let me know what you think :)


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